Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad
This is the announcement that has me most excited. Looking back, I haven't played Skyward Sword a second time after beating it. No hero mode, and I never even finished the trials to get the Hylian shield. Honestly, it's a good game, it has great sounds and visuals, and its level design is fantastic for a linear dungeon crawl, but some aspects of the game are annoying as hell (reiterating item descriptions, everything that Fi ever did or said, occasional unpredictability of the motion-plus controls) and the world never felt cohesive.
That Nintendo is considering pulling back from the linear nature of the recent Zelda formula is huge, IMO. Maybe this is just Old Man Smithy looking back on his childhood with rose-tinted glasses, but I feel like a major factor in the enjoyment and popularity of the first several Zelda games was that the worlds really were (mostly) open environments and you could explore and (sometimes) take on the challenges in different orders. I know that this added many many hours of replay value to the old games for me.
Please oh please oh please let's have more of that.  
As for the hint at a multiplayer aspect? No idea. I wonder where they'd even start with that. The whole series is predicated more than anything else on the quiet hero out to save the world all alone (ignoring the chatty NPC tagalongs like Fi and Navi). |
While I did a lot more with SS than most Zelda fans I know (I've gone through Hero Mode a few times, getting the Hylian Shield each time), the linearity of it and everything you said about Fi is absolutely true. If there is one thing I really miss in Zelda, it's the exploration available from LA, LttP, etc. I'm always the type that does whatever I can as early as possible as a challenge. Want to know my preferred order to beat OoT? Deku, Well, Spirit Temple (Young Link), Dodongo's, Jabu Jabu, Forest, Spirit, Fire (to the Hammer), Water, Shadow, Gerudo Training Grounds, Fire. Just so I can have Ice Arrows to fire at Volvagia. Doesn't do any extra damage. Just want to BECAUSE. I always loved seeing what sorts of trick jumps I could pull in LA to get certain places early, too. If this is the type of thing coming, I will be SO HAPPY.